Sunday, August 8, 2010

Trouble In The Coop

As you saw from the pictures of our injured hen, we have had some trouble in the coop. I thought maybe a cat had gotten to her. I was wrong I think. This Wednesday when we went out to check on the the injured hen I noticed the rooster was bleeding by his tail feathers and that a whole bunch of feathers had been pecked away! The birds are the ones that are causing so much damage to each other. I believe they have gotten into "cannibalism", it's where the birds will peck each other till they draw blood. Possibly because there isn't enough room, and because there isn't enough foliage to eat. I noticed that all the birds seemed to have some pecking damage by their back tail feathers except the Golden Sexlinks. I don't know if they are aggressive birds, but it is fishy that they are the only ones without any damage. Chickens do mimic each other so maybe they are all doing it. Its hard to tell at times what or who is causing the problem. I will have to let them wander the garden more so they have more to peck at and not get bored and pick on each other. Sadly since the rooster was getting picked on, my Dad decided it was time to get rid of him. And they opened back up the injured chickens wound, I have to let her wander the garden by herself till its completely healed or they will keep pecking at it. Hopefully I can get the situation under control before I lose any more chickens.

Here is the injured chicken's wound.

She is starting to let me pet her, sorta, she did peck me today when I was petting her back. She knows who I am though, well ok she knows I bring food so when the gate opens to the garden she comes a running!

This is a good picture of her wound. It looks terrible, but she is handling it well.

Hopefully things improve for my chickens. I collected 5 eggs today! That is the most they have laid yet. It is so exciting to go out and see if they have any eggs in their nests. Pretty soon I will have more eggs than I will know what to do with.